RollerCoaster Tycoon 2

I loved Rollercoaster Tycoon. I find theme parks and the
construction of the rides therein really quite fascinating, so for
someone to develop a game based on this very premise was a dream
come true. Nearly four years ago Chris Sawyer took the formula
pioneered by Bullfrog's Theme Park and pushed it forward
dramatically to produce an enormously satisfying theme park sim.
Can he pull it off again?

Fun fair?

Mmm... brown

Sadly, the resounding answer
appears to be "no". Well, sort of. You need only take a look
at the screenshots here to realise that any advancements made
to the engine are extremely tricky to spot. You can play it at
higher resolutions, certainly, but that doesn't make it look
any better than it did in 1999, and in the present company of
games like Sim City 4 it looks distinctly... well, crap. The
textures are reminiscent of Windows 95 wallpaper tiles, and
the colour depth of both the interface and park graphics
haven't improved in the slightest.

There's been no attempt at smoothing the landscape either, and your
parks just look like mental Lego sets. This was acceptable in the
game's first incarnation, when many systems would have been
struggling to push it around at 1024x768, but now the functional
graphical style has the effect of diluting your experience - it
becomes difficult to identify with the world you're creating.
Worryingly, RCT2 just isn't as fun as it should be because of this.

Sawyer would have us believe that the underlying code is "all new",
but there just isn't much to show for it apart from the fact that
your old saved games can't be used. The major additions to the game
are the inclusion of a rollercoaster designer for use outside of
park management scenarios, and a scenario editor where you can set
up landscapes and win conditions to play with. The two tools share
the same cumbersome construction interface as the main game, and in
the case of the rollercoaster editor, it doesn't ease the
construction of rides any further than taking away the
responsibility of running a park while you're trying to design your
uber-coaster.

There is also a set of twenty new scenarios to play, although you
can now go about completing them in any order you like. With this
complete open ended-ness, the feeling of progression, achievement
and reward from Rollercoaster Tycoon has been replaced with what is
essentially a toy set.

I-scream (Boom boom!)

*Gulp*

The fact that the developers didn't see
fit to improve on the original's frankly clumsy interface
either is really quite baffling. They might have felt that the
original was so well liked that they can't go wrong by
recreating it, but this isn't good enough. Creating simple
slopes, tunnels for your coasters and rides to pelt through
isn't as simple as it should be, and the fixed ninety-degree
rotational angles don't exactly make matters any easier.

How about a function to automatically generate queues when you
can't see through pieces of scenery, no matter what angle you're
looking from? How about the game taking the initiative and digging
some tunnels for you when a ride needs them? It's little things
like this that are so obviously needed that it frustrates me that I
should even be having to point them out. Even the added
functionality of being able to build your own scenery up
block-by-block in the scenario editor is hampered by the dated
construction tools. Taking what was good about the original and
making it twice as good is what we expect to see in a sequel, not a
half-arsed effort with some editing tools that could have been
given away on the website.

Oh, but what's this on the box here? It's a Six Flags logo!
Somebody somewhere saw the dollar signs, and as a result we get a
set of scenarios based around recreations of the franchise's parks
from around the world. The license does bring some interesting new
rides to the already impressive collection, however, and just
watching some of the awesomely designed coasters is an absolute
pleasure.

Considering that it's perfectly possible for you to create
similarly impressive rides for your own parks, it's here that RCT2
redeems itself somewhat; you have absolute power to create rides
that you've only been able to dream about before, but it's just so
frustrating that a potentially stunning game is handicapped by an
absolute dog of an engine and no sign of real innovation. I mean
look at it, for crying out loud!

Conclusion

'If it ain't broke, why fix it?' you could say, and as a critic
this puts me in a difficult position. I could spend pages mouthing
off about how nobody saw fit to really change the game and craft
the sequel we deserve after gobbling up the predecessor in it's
millions, but RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 is still a pretty good game in
its own right, if you try to forget that it's pig-ugly and meant to
be a sequel.

If you've never played RCT before, then this is an excellent
opportunity to sample what is the still the definitive theme park
management sim - add two to the score if that applies to you. If
you're a veteran of the series, however, I wouldn't blame you for
not handing over your hard-earned for what is essentially a patch
and expansion pack in a box. Though it pains me to do it, for the
almost complete lack of innovation and progression of a nearly
four-year-old title (and a now-budget title at that), I have to
hand an old friend a score like this.

This is my public bio. There are many others like it, but this one is mine. My public bio is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my public bio is useless. Without my public bio, I am useless.